“It is now clear that Egypt’s new constitution will not be finished before a new president is elected by June. That means the old constitution, which gives the president near-dictatorial powers, will still prevail when the military council that has ruled Egypt for the past year is replaced”:<\/p>\n
The FJP’s “presidential candidate \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a self-made multimillionaire tycoon \u00e2\u20ac\u201d” distinguishes himself from the opposition by his commitment to “free-market capitalism and reducing corruption,” declaring, “there is no other alternative for Egyptians except to focus sharply on financing a great deal of development projects outside the state budget”:<\/p>\n
“The SNC and the Free Syrian Army … accepted Annan’s plan but rejected a last-minute demand by Assad to provide written guarantees that they would lay down their arms. Annan told the UN he had been advised … ‘that the Syrian government is no longer insisting on written guarantees, but would need me to assure that the other parties and governments also accept the plan'”:<\/p>\n
“Mira Yusef, a Muslim feminist who founded and runs a statewide domestic violence and sexual assault prevention and intervention program” opposes the anti-shariah bill whose sponsor justifies\u00c2\u00a0 the bill as a measure against culturally sanction practices like “honor killings” even as she admits that knows of no such “or how, under the Iowa and U.S. constitutions, it could” possibly happen:<\/p>\n
A group calling “for the release of thousands of people detained without charge or trial on suspicion of involvement in ‘militant activity” says its co-founder “detained on charges of “instigating demonstrations, membership of an unlicensed association, supporting the pro-democracy protests in neighbouring Bahrain, and possession of prohibited books” has been force-fed:<\/p>\n
In Iraq, the parliament approved the creation of an independent Human Rights Commission to monitor\u00c2\u00a0any human rights violations in government and non-government institutions.\u00c2\u00a0 Any citizen can appeal to the court and the court will be independent commission under Article 102 of the constitution but will produce annual reports for the parliament:<\/p>\n
The victim worked at “the Islamic Culture Center, one of the oldest Islamic groups in Russia, which was banned by Russia’s Supreme Court last year. The group claimed the ban was instigated by the Federal Security Service, Russia’s man KGB successor agency.” The group’s chairman compared the killing “to hate crimes committed by radical ultranationalist groups”:<\/p>\n